Why was the NEP controversial

Question 1

What was the NEP

Answer 1

- Was intended by Lenin 
  primarily to meet Russia's 
  urgent need for food 
- War communism had clearly 
  failed to provide its intention
- If the peasants could not be 
  forced then they must be 
  persuaded
- Spring 1921
- Peasants allowed to keep 
  their food surpluses and sell 
  them for a profit 
- Money to be re-introduced 
  as a means of trading
- Public markets to be 
  restored

Question 2

Why was the NEP controversial to many Bolsheviks

Answer 2

• Lenin demanded that
  political theory take second
  place to economic necessity
• This troubled many members such as
  Trotsky who argued that war communism
  was a proper revolutionary strategy
• To many Bolsheviks, treating the peasants
  harshly was exactly what they had done for
  years and there was little reason not to
  continue
• It disturbed them that the peasants were
  being given into and capitalist ways were
  being tolerated

Question 3

Was the NEP a success

Answer 3

• One of the main controversies came from the
  fact that the NEP turned out a success
• By 1924, the Soviet economy had begun to make
  a marked recovery
• This created huge controversy, especially after
  Lenins death, the capitalist policy that
  supposedly represented everything the
  Bolsheviks despised had been a greater
  success than Communist ideologically driven
  policies

Question 4

What was War Communism

Answer 4

• Aeries of harshly restrictive economic measures
  which were introduced in June 1918 and collectively
  known as war communism
• In three parts
• Centralising of the industry
• ending of private ownership
• The squeezing of the peasants
• For Lenin, the major purpose of War Communism was to
  tighten government control over agriculture and force
  the peasants to provide more food
• Heavily under the control of the Cheka, whom ensured
  quotas were met for the soldiers fighting in the civil
  war despite the dire food shortages it created for
  ordinary people

Question 5

How did the Kronstadt Rising 1921 contribute to the formation of the NEP

Answer 5

• There was growing opposition to war communism within
  the Bolshevik political sphere
• In 1921, two prominent Bolsheviks, the labour commissar
  and the outstanding women in the party
  led an opposition movement with thousands of
  Petrograd workers - They linked up with sailors and
  dockyard workers
• A manifesto was produced which included New
  elections to the Soviets, freedom of speech and of the
  press and freedom of assembly - this was significant -
  the fact that the workers and sailors of Kronstadt had
  written this manifesto - they had been the great
  supporters and inspirers of the Bolsheviks in 1917
• 60,000 Red troops stormed the Kronstadt base
• Thousands of workers and Red army troops killed
• Despite its crushing Lenin realised that War
  Communism was slowly tearing the country apart:
  quoted ‘lit up reality like a lightening flash’

Question 6

Why did War Communism fail

Answer 6

• Did nothing to increase industrial or agricultural
  production - it was imposed at a time of severe
  industrial disruption.
• Military needs were given priority, thus denying
  recourses to those industries not considered essential
• Farmers and the Government could not agree on a fair
  price for their produce
• led to a breakdown in relations, the government
  condemned them as anti-revolutionaries and sent
  Cheka requisitioning units to the countryside
• They systematically terrorised the peasants and forced
  them to give up their food
• However all it did was lead to a decrease in production
  and less food available
• Resulted in mass famine in the countryside
• influenced the formation of the NEP
• 5 million starved to death of the 10 million casualties in
  the civil war

Question 7

What were the main reasons for the formation of the NEP

Answer 7

• Failure of the policy of War Communism
• Russia’s dire need for food
• Kronstadt Rising 1921

Question 8

When was the NEP installed as a policy

Answer 8

Spring 1921

Question 9

Evaluate Lenin’s strengths and weaknesses as the Bolshevik leader between 1917 - 1924

Answer 9

Strengths

In general, Lenin’s strengths far outweighed his weaknesses.

• Total ruthlessness in his pursuit of his revolutionary
  objectives
• A remarkable sense of political opportunism, which
  enabled him to lead his minority party into power in 1917
  and then establish a Communist state
• A driving sense of self-belief that allowed him to
  overcome opposition within to overcome
• A refusal to be deterred by reversal and failure which
  saw him survive in exile, civil war, economic collapse,
  famine and foreign invasion

However, one cannot be sympathetic to the methods of Lenin

• Conviction and commitment led him to disregard the
  human the human cost of his methods
• His ruthless approach led to unnecessary suffering and
  created a set of grim precedents
• While he was occasionally willing to adjust economic
  policy for expediency’s sake, Lenin’s basic hostility to
  capitalism denied Soviet Russia the opportunity to
  achieve sustained growth.